Broken Pencil Issue 24
You secretly want to write a book. Your words blare. But every novel you read is a long, grey, middle-aged epic. Who would publish your misfit fiction? Your dream fades, a puff of forgotten smoke.
Don’t give up so easily. Like Michael Holmes, now a highly regarded Toronto-based poet, novelist, editor and the creator of the misFit imprint, if you really want the world to read your work, you should harness some zinester initiative and Do It Yourself.
Holmes was a University of Toronto student in the early 90s when he published his first poem out of spite to get back at a "pretentious smarmy bastard" who called himself a poet. "I disliked him so much I thought, well if he can do this, anyone can," Holmes says.
Holmes started a reading series called Café May in the West end of Toronto with some friends. He hung out at a used and rare bookshop, Annex Books, and in 1992 he left copies of his first chapbook there. A couple of weeks later he got a call from Bruce Whiteman, who was then the poetry editor at ECW Press, "and it was like Lana Turner being discovered in a malt shop."
Whiteman had read Holmes’ chapbook and wanted to know if Holmes had a book-length manuscript ready. Holmes lied, said yes, spent a feverish couple of weeks getting something together, submitted it and says, "Three days later I got the best phone call of my life." Whiteman wanted to publish his book. Making that same call to first time authors has been Holmes’ favorite part of the publishing process ever since.
When Whiteman accepted a job as a rare book librarian in California in 1994, Holmes took over as poetry editor at ECW. Holmes also wanted to get some experience editing fiction, so he volunteered at Insomniac Press. He started the misFit imprint there in 1997 and moved it over to ECW in 1999, when they finally offered him the creative freedom he required.
Holmes is a 37 year-old former punk rock guitarist and drummer -- not exactly your average Canadian literary editor. Poetry is literally in his blood - he has numerous literary symbols etched into his skin, including an Ian Hamilton Finlay concrete poem in the shape of a guillotine. His fourth, and most recent, book of poetry, Parts Unknown, was inspired by his obsession with professional wrestling.
Holmes strives to be the kind of editor he would like to work with. Instead of dictating how a book should be written, Holmes builds a strong rapport with his writers before offering plenty of honest opinion. "I am going to tell you every single thing that I think," says Holmes of his editing style. "And if I’m right you can take my suggestions, no big deal, and if I’m wrong you can tell me to fuck off."
He’s intensely devoted to his writers and they’re loyal in return. Author R.M. Vaughan says misFit writers are "a kind of little family, but without all of the screaming at Christmas."
Holmes’ vision for misFit is to publish "really accomplished, well-written material that’s dramatically or structurally challenging." The name of the imprint references the punk band and also signals a desire to champion CanLit misfits. Many of the over 50 misFit titles Holmes has edited are books other presses have been reticent to publish, including queer lit by writers such as Sky Gilbert as well as Lynn Crosbie’s controversial Paul’s Case and Derek McCormack’s minimalist Haunted Hillbilly. "With the misFit books it’s never been about how many copies we’ve sold," Holmes explains, "it’s about how good the books are."
Holmes encourages Canadian readers to be more adventurous in their reading choices and wishes the CanLit establishment would do the same. He describes most of our bestsellers as "very well accomplished pieces of commercial fiction" that should be recognized as such -- instead of being lauded with Gillers, Governor Generals and other prizes Holmes believes are more akin to lotteries than meritocracies. Holmes insists that books with small print runs issued in paperback or even stapled, photocopied and glue gunned are just as good as a $39.95 hardcover from Random House.
One of Holmes’s many tattoos is of William Blake’s Urizen. It reminds him of how creation occurs when pen meets paper. Like Blake, Holmes is railing against conventional literary wisdom, creating his own shelf of Canadian classics, one title at a time. Holmes has become the disagreeable punk in the bookstore, publishing the poetry and fiction he believes in, and encouraging others to follow his example. As he puts it, "There’s a whole generation of people that have to take our art and our culture in this country by the scruff of the neck."
Michael Holmes’ Advice for Emerging Writers:
1. Publish your own books. You can make them beautiful and do so quite cheaply.
2. Go to a lot of readings. If you’re behind the microphone, remember, shorter is better.
3. Develop a community of friends who can be honest about the caliber of your work.
4. Read widely.
5. Poets should read a couple of books of poetry. It’s shocking how many poets don’t.
6. Admit that you’re fallible and that you can write a lousy poem.
7. Don’t get too upset or elated by a rejection or acceptance letter from a literary magazine. Most Canadian lit mags are notoriously bad judges of quality.
8. If you’re going to send out a manuscript, research the publisher.
9. Review books for magazines and learn how to articulate your own opinions without making the book review about yourself.
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